LaRochelle, France
Sept 13, 1918
Dear Mother:
Will drop you a few lines today as I have a little time. I have had an awful cold ever since I came down here but have been going all the time and am feeling pretty good tonight. I just got about an inch of dirt and whiskers off my face and feel 100% better. This France sure is the craziest place I ever saw for rain. If a cloud as big as my hat passed over and failed to rain, I'd be willing to stake my last cent that it was smoke or a balloon.
I got a letter from Bertha yesterday. It was sent to D.C. and transferred here. She sent me Harley's address but I got a letter from Frank, too, and Frank said Harley was looking to be moved to Michigan. So I don't know whether to write to him or not. I guess the letter would follow him the same as mine do me. I'll bet Buck rares when she reads my letter. I says, "Well, when Uncle Sam gets Frank and Homer in the Army, we will have a young Army all our own." I says, "He took me first, then Harley, then Bill, because he wanted all the good men first and it was a good thing! She was a girl or her time would be next, ha!" Jings, we will have a whole line of khaki at our house when the war is over, which is going to be a good deal sooner than some may think. If you and papa were as well represented in Congress as you are in the Army, you would have controlling interest in the United States.
I'll be blessed if it isn't a big job to write a letter any more. I don't know what I can say, and also, that crazy Ft. Madison kid was bothering me till I forgot what I was going to write. I sent you folks about $40.00 the 3rd of Sept. When did you get it or have you got it yet? What kind of crops did you all have this year? The U.S. must have pretty good luck on the crop deal the way they have been feeding us lately, and that's what it takes to whip the Kaiser, ha! You know you saw in the paper several times in big letters "An Army Travels on its Stomach; Are you Farmers going to Furnish the Transportation) Ha! I've often thought about that and the man who wrote it knew what he was saying, or I'll eat my hat.
I'd just like to be in the flying corps. I'd like to drop a bomb about the size of a silo right on the top of the Kaiser's head. I'll bet I'd send him home happy. I'd blow him clear back to Christmas dinner, 1492.
Well, I guess I'd better close so answer soon and tell me all the news. Your letters to me are not opened till I get them and write often. As ever your son,
Identification No. 2008549